Cairn India has hired two custom-made drilling rigs from Weatherford International, built by NOV, Houston, Texas, especially for Cairn to assist it in the process of extracting oil in Barmer in Rajasthan. The cost of hiring is estimated at $86 million.
The first rig has already reached the Haldia port and the second is expected to reach Mundra port today.
These rigs, which are highly automated, require very less human intervention and are designed to move rapidly from slot to slot on a pad location and also in between the pad locations. It is from these slots that the wells will be drilled.
The Barmer field is expected to produce 175,000 barrels per day of oil equivalent by 2010. The oil reserves discovered in 2004, is estimated to contain 3.7 billion barrels of oil equivalent, of which one billion is extractable.